UK admits knowledge of coup plan

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The British Government knew about the alleged coup plot in the
oil-rich West African state of Equatorial Guinea five weeks before
a band of foreign-led mercenaries was arrested en route to the
country.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has admitted the Government had
been informed about plans to overthrow President Teodoro Obiang
Nguema in late January.

The Foreign Office had previously denied any prior knowledge of
the coup before the mercenaries, headed by former British SAS
officer Simon Mann, were detained in Zimbabwe in March.

Sir Mark Thatcher, the son of former British prime minister
Margaret Thatcher, is facing charges in South Africa of helping
finance the coup.

He has denied the charges, made under South Africa's tough
anti-mercenary laws, and is fighting them through the courts.

Britain has full diplomatic relations with Equatorial Guinea,
Africa's third-largest oil producer, and would have been expected
to inform it about any alleged coup that would have been illegal
under international law.

Diplomatic officials from the country will now press Britain to
fully disclose what it knew about the alleged coup.

Sixty-seven of the mercenaries arrested in March, including
Mann, have begun serving prison sentences in Zimbabwe, whose
President Robert Mugabe has claimed the coup was organised by
British, US and Spanish interests.

Mann has been sentenced to seven years for conspiring to buy
arms for the coup, while most of the plotters have been jailed for
breaking immigration laws.

Several prominent Britons, including Prime Minister Tony Blair's
political confidant, Peter Mandelson, and disgraced Tory peer,
novelist Jeffrey Archer, have been linked to the alleged
conspiracy.

Mr Mandelson has strongly denied a report last week that he had
been contacted by the coup's alleged financier, Eli Calil, to
ascertain the Blair Government's attitude to a change of government
in Equatorial Guinea.

Lebanese-born Mr Calil has denied any involvement in the coup,
as has Lord Archer.

Mr Straw's admission came in a previously unreported
parliamentary answer to a question by Conservative foreign affairs
spokesman Michael Ancram. The Foreign Office has declined to give
further details of British knowledge, citing court actions under
way in Africa.

Sources reportedly close to the Equatorial Guinea Government
told Britain's Observer that Mr Straw's admission was
surprising.

"This is particularly surprising in the view of the fact that a
number of British citizens and residents of the UK appear to be
central to the conspiracy," the source said.

The coup was allegedly aimed at replacing President Obiang's
25-year rule with exiled politician Severo Moto, who is based in
Spain.